Fear no one.
We are called to not allow fear to become an excuse that keeps us from following Jesus. The risk is that we allow fear to make us conceal the Gospel rather than helping to reveal it or letting it stay a secret when the time comes to make it known. It isn't so much that we are called to go and shout on city streets or proclaim from housetops as to have the willingness to do so, the boldness, and the readiness to speak.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
In other countries where Christians boldly confront those who can kill the body and present them with the Gospel of peace we see that individuals can and do live out this call of Jesus to be fearless. But in our own protected slices of the first world where, thus far, our lives are not at risk, every little potential repercussion of the proclaiming the good news seems to paralyze us with fear. We fear not so much for our lives as for our feelings. And it is clear from this that our priorities are often precisely inverted from our Christian call. We are more interested in self-protection, in living from our ego felt need to defend ourselves against every fear, than in the Gospel call to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
The solution to our petty human fears is not simply to wish them away by sheer force of will. It is rather to properly internalize better priorities. The fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, can supplant all our merely human fears. But this sort of fear is far different from our worldly fears. Although in the fear of the Lord the stakes are much higher, and the potential consequences more dire, it is nevertheless not the fear as of an abusive tyrant. It is rather the proper posture of awe and humility before a Father who loves us and wills our good. This is combined with a deep self-knowledge of our readiness to squander his great gifts and turn away from him. Our fear is proof against our weakness, proof that clings tenaciously to the love of the Father.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
We need not be afraid of the world, which can do us no lasting harm. And we need not fear as though we were not loved, because our creator himself has proven his love for us. We know our own ability to fail to respond to this love, which is why we cling to it, even desperately, to bring us safely home.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.
The Christian call is not one without stakes. Jesus gave his life in order that we might be acknowledged before the Father, and in order that our names might be found in the book of life. But we have to actually demonstrate that this is what we ourselves desire by our willingness to affirm and speak about Jesus. Worldly fear will lead us to deny him, just as it once led Peter to do. But, just as he did for the Apostles at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit can inspire in us a new and higher fear of the Lord, a fear that does not leave us immobilized in darkness, but sends us out on a joyful missionary adventure.
Our minds often whisper along the same lines as what Jeremiah heard: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!". And we often succumb to such threats rather than remembering (as holy fear would teach us) that the LORD is with us like a mighty champion. Yet even when we fail (and we almost certainly will not succeed every time) we know that God's own desire is not to see us condemned, that Jesus himself longs to acknowledge us to his Father, and that they will do everything possible to restore us when we fall. However great is our brokenness God's mercy and his power to transform us is greater still.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
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